Love's Fortune (The Ballantyne Legacy Book #3): A Novel

Loved the continuing story of the Ballantyne family. Love historical books that are well researched. Recommend it highly to others.

You won’t be disappointed in this series. I wanted the Ballantyne Legacy to go on. I always enjoy a Laura Franz novel. Her research and creative description puts my imagination right there.

I want to start this review by stating that the lessons and characters of this story still float through my mind even days after I have finished it. Yes, it's that good!Wren is a Kentucky girl. She doesn't take much care with her appearance. She wears her hair in a careless braid, with a mismatched wardrobe. It doesn't matter to her. She works in a shop helping make violins and bows. Her father receives a letter, and she suddenly finds herself on the way to Pennsylvania... Pittsburgh to be exact. They make their way there on board a ship named for her, Rowena. A completely new life awaits with family she has never met.In Pittsburgh, she finds her stubborn and out spoken Aunt Andra ready to change her into a lady ready for society. Wren is scared, nervous and frustrated! There is just so much to learn, and she doesn't feel as if she will ever live up to her Aunt's standards. She enters society with an employee of her grandfather, James Sackett, as her escort. The scenes are so descriptive that I find my own stomach tied in knots as she attends to her first public event. Oh how difficult change can be! Wren, however, may have changed on the outside, but her wonderful loving heart and shy spirit remain the same. The clothes and manners don't make her a lady, her true character does.Wren finds two men in her circle. How is she suppose to know the right one? In trying to think of others first she makes a mistake...is it too late to correct it? Will Wren find true love in high society? Or is just perhaps not possibly given her upbringing?Wren's situation tugged at my heart strings...I found myself in her shoes..wanting to find the nearest corner and hide. Yet, Wren is so willing to please those around her! She is so endearing with her shy and loving ways. "She finds no joy in wealth and all it's trappings. Her tastes are simple." This reader hopes that can be said of me because what a great testament to true happiness! The characters are so real, written so well, and weave their way right into the readers heart! I totally fell in love.Once again, choices are to be made by many. Decisions that don't just affect today and those making them, but choices that affect generations to come. This marvelous and intriguing read is a superb third book in the Ballantyne series. When Wren finds love...it's comfort, home, safety, and commitment. She finds true love and though she may now be called " a lady", her heart proves that she was a lady long before she entered Pittsburgh society.Don't miss this story of the coming of age Wren who needed no refinement, but she took it with grace and patience because she was already a fine lady seeking and praying for God's will to take place in her life.

Rowena Ballantyne has been sheltered since birth. She has heard of her famous grandfather, Silas, but has never met him or anyone else in her father’s family. One day, her father receives a letter, which then finds Rowena making a journey to New Hope where she will come face-to-face with her father’s family. Rowena feels completely out of her element; she is used to running barefoot through the Kentucky wilds, but now has to learn dances, wear uncomfortable dresses, and act proper in a society she isn’t sure she could ever really belong. Enter a gorgeous steamship pilot named James who definitely carries the key to Rowena’s heart.This book is not as intense as Love’s Reckoning, but it is still seriously good. Rowena is a sweet, well-developed character. Jack is handsome, and a few times I wanted to reach into the novel and shake some sense into him! There are some very sweet, endearing moments in this novel. There are some moments where the characters act quite frustratingly. But, it all ends well. This is a great book in a great series. I cannot recommend this series or this book enough!

I am a huge Laura Frantz fan, but this book is probably my least favorite of all her books. It is not because of her writing, which is always superb. I think it's because I like her frontier/early America novels so much better than this novel, which was set among Pittsburgh society and an industrializing America. The Frontiersman's Daughter epitomizes what Frantz does best. Not only does the setting of Love's Fortune seem less "Frantzian" than her other novels, the number of people that the author has to manage and whose stories have to be wound up (since this is the last of the trilogy) makes the story slow-moving and the ending rather abrupt. I can buy into Wren's and James's immediate attraction, but for about the first third of the book they are apart before suddenly being thrust together in society. Their romance begins to bud then. Another reviewer noted the passion between them; it is nothing unseemly and is handled well. Even Christian people are attracted to one another and kiss each other before marriage.The problems that I had were just nit-picky, and I would still recommend this novel: Ansel is portrayed at the beginning as a doting, caring father, but he goes off on his father's business and is gone for most of the novel, leaving his sheltered, wilderness-raised daughter to sink or swim in Pittsburgh society, guided by her cold-hearted Aunt Andra, a woman he couldn't abide in Love's Awakening. Removing him from the action was needed so that Wren could be around James more, and he couldn't die because the family would have been in mourning and unable to participate in the season. Still, Ansel's actions are problematic given the family dynamic. Other than the need for a villain, I could see no reason for Bennett's presence in the novel. The ending was strangely abrupt after the novel juggled so many different people for so long. Just as her father's return is imminent, Wren decides to do something rash on her own, without waiting for him to arrive. Izannah & Malachi's story is wrapped up suddenly--what changed his mind? Why is she willing to accept this change? Despite everything, the requisite happy ending comes.I will say that it was nice to visit with old friends from the previous novels. It is clear that Elspeth could never change. Silas and Eden are still in love, and readers can see the family that has grown from that love. Jack and Ellie are as in love as ever, and it was especially warming to visit with them again at River Hill. Izannah perhaps needed her own book, but Wren was sweet and harkens back to Frantz's earlier Kentucky frontier novels. For that reason alone, I warmed to her. Laura Frantz is always wonderful, and I look forward to her next novel.

great read

Wren captured my heart from the very first page. Forced to shuck her Kentucky roots for the big city and even bigger expectations of the Ballantyne kin she barely knows. I felt her floundering confusion as she wrestled to find her place in a 'foreign' land. I wanted to throttle her father for being so clueless. Gah! Just like a man to pull the rug out from under his daughter and then leave her to gain her own footing again. Grrrr.Luckily Wren has pluck and I love how she stayed true to herself. She has an inner strength and goodness about her -- a naivety that makes her stand out in a crowd. Truth and simplicity are her beauty and that's what draws Jamie in though he has no business feeling anything but friendship for this Ballantyne heir. At least, that's what he thinks which certainly complicates things...a lot!Frantz had me on tenterhooks as I devoured page after page. She spins a compelling tale with descriptive words that capture my senses and make me feel like I'm living in Wren's skin. Another exceptional novel from a talented author.

Very good